Garden Mosaic, Spring 2011

My niece with her 3 children, stopped by from Chicago on their way to Florida, for the kids' spring break, and dropped off my mom here. A lot of people say my niece Stephanie, looks more like me than my own daughters do, but you be the judge. People actually call her "Christine" sometimes by mistake.

It must have been a big difference on how the surroundings looked between Chicago and here that she really enjoyed taking pictures of our yard.

It was really strange but in our 4 years of living here, this is the first time I saw bluebirds in the backyard. I usually see a lot of cardinals, mockingbirds and blue jays but never bluebirds, until now. But they are welcome here. In fact, I just refilled all my bird feeders. I hope they eat whatever I put out there.

I am linking with Sally for Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Mary for Mosaic Monday at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

and Mary's Masterpieces Monday at http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping and thanks to our gracious hostesses!

Pilgrimage Tour: Banker's House

My granddaughter, AJ is back in Florida but we had a great time together while her stay here for her spring break lasted. It just so happen that it is Spring Pilgrimage season here so I was able to take her to tour some antebellum houses. It is one of my favorite things to do here. I have not seen all the antebellum houses that are open for touring yet, but I would eventually like to see them all.

I am linking with Beverly's Pink Saturday at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

and Laurie for A Few of My Favorite Things at http://bargainhuntingwithlaurie.blogspot.com/

We went to the Visitor Center to pick which tour we wanted to take.
and we picked the pink tour, the Banker's House and the house on Ellicott Hill.

For today's Sightseeing Saturday, I am showing you the Banker's House.
The reason they call it the Banker's House is because in the olden days. the banker had to live next to the bank. Do you see the white building attached to the house? That used to be the bank but now, it is a church. It used to have a direct access from the house but that has been sealed now. The first picture of the mosaic is the left side of the house and the bottom picture is the right side. One thing nice about touring the houses during pilgrimage season is that the tour guides are wearing Southern belle gowns. This was who greeted us at the door. I was glad to have AJ see

the Southern belles.

When I saw this book cabinet which was the first furniture that we saw, I fell instantly in love with the house.



The fireplace is right across from it in the same room. I am not sure but this might have been the gentlemen's parlor.

Right next to it is the dining room.

Across the hallway from the dining room must have been a music room cause it has this neat piano.

I took a close up of the wooden casket for Vanna.

Next to this room, which is across the hallway from the library or gentlemen's parlor is another parlor, I assume, was the ladies'.

I love all the furniture below.

After seeing the 4 rooms downstairs, we went upstairs.

I like this room. It looks very comfy with the sofa covered in red toile.

And this belle was waiting to show us the adjoining bedroom.

Isn't this a gorgeous bedroom? I love that half tester bed.

My young guest was paying attention to the tour guides.



Next to the red room is another bedroom.

I love this fainting sofa at the foot of the bed.

Adjoining the bedroom with Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls is another bedroom. The armoire is gorgeous and huge. All the rooms have a fireplace.

View from the top of the stairs.

And that was the end of the tour. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for coming along and thanks to our hostesses. I hope you get to visit them and their other participants also.

First Swimming Party of 2011

I am celebrating spring with Kathy. Are you? We'd love for you to join us at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

This post was ready to publish at a scheduled time when I woke up in the morning and looked out and saw the azaleas blooming. I grabbed my camera and just had to add it to the post to share with you. I was so excited! It does not take much to make me happy. Just show me a colorful garden and I feel like I am in heaven.

I have been having a blast spending time with my granddaughter, AJ, who flew from Florida to celebrate her spring break with us.. So lucky that the weather has been cooperating with us. We had our first pool party for this year a few days ago and I would like to share the fun with you. I am also linking with
Susan for Outdoor Wednesday at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Susan for Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday at http://www.tootsietime.com/

and for Watery Wednesday at http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Even though the temp. is in the 80's the water pool temp was too cold for me to swim in it. I want the water temp to be at least 82 degrees before I can dip in so John turned the heat on. Here he is by the vent waiting for the water to warm up.

It was a big challenge for me to prepare for the party. We have been trying to get 2 I Pad 2's, one for us and 1 for AJ but Apple stores are always sold out. I called a store in Jackson and they told us to go there when they open at 9 and take our chances cause they get shipments every morning but they sell them out really fast. So we did just that. It's a 2 and a half hour drive from home to Jackson so we left very early to get there on time. By the time we got there, they only had some with 16 MB left and we want 64 so we did not even buy any. But so as not to completely waste a trip, we went to TJ Maxx and Marshall's to shop for a while and then headed for home. We got home at 1:30 PM and I had already invited some friends for 3 PM, which means that I only have 1.5 hrs. left to do everything. I tell ya, all 4 stoves and the oven were all going, talk about multitasking, after all they call me the energizer bunny for nothing, lol

The guests arrived shortly after 3 and I was still cooking so I told them to go out and swim. AJ and John were already in the pool. I had everything set on the table by 4 and we ate at 5 so everything turned out just fine.

My guests brought some ribs and they were so yummy! Inside the bunny casserole dish is rice.

I made rice as usual, fish with sweet and sour sauce, crab omelette and chicken with mushrooms. AJ and I made brownies the day before and I had a coconut cake and also a pecan pie in the freezer that I defrosted so we just served them since I ran out of time to make dessert.


The kids had so much fun swimming.

We adults had fun chatting, eating and swimming too. There's me and my friend Brenda.

Jett is about to jump from the diving board here.

The ornamental cabbage is blooming.

and half of the trumpet vine flower buds opened up. I just had to show them to you.


The sun started to set and we were still swimming.

It got dark and we were still swimming. I don't think we stopped until it was almost 8 PM. We had so much fun and I was happy to get some exercise.

Thanks to our wonderful hostesses for these fun memes and I appreciate you all for coming by.